


Devil's Night

by PixelByPixel



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Deckerstar Network Trick or Devil Halloween Exchange, Deckerstar-ish, F/M, Guns, Humor, No specific timeframe within the show, Reveal, Wings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2019-01-28 03:53:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12597560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PixelByPixel/pseuds/PixelByPixel
Summary: A brief stop at a Halloween store on October 30th and a young woman in need of help leads to a revelation.





	Devil's Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [moonatoms](https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonatoms/gifts).



> This is my first exchange fic and my first attempt at writing from any sort of prompt, so please be gentle. ;) My prompt was "vandalism."

Chloe idly shook the can, hearing it rattle, and considered the possibility of spray glitter ending up all over her bathroom versus the smile on her daughter’s face at this addition to her new and improved President of Mars costume.

No contest. She tossed the can into her shopping basket, pausing as she listened for the sounds of impending mayhem. Not hearing anything yet, she moved farther into the store.

Chloe loved Halloween. As a child, she’d adored trick-or-treating with her father, particularly during those rare years that her mother hadn’t been involved with her costume. And now she got to share that same joy with Trixie. They had already decorated the apartment, though she and Trixie both agreed that they needed more fake cobwebs. Trixie had been agitating for a motion-sensitive spider over the door, but Chloe, thinking of a certain knife-happy bounty hunter and her reflexes, had vetoed that suggestion.

“So,” a familiar voice purred in her ear as she reached for the cobwebs. “What’s your Halloween costume?”

Chloe turned, and there was the one she had been listening for: Lucifer, looking pleased as punch, held a police officer’s outfit - she wouldn’t malign the uniform by referring to this as such - that looked like it was made of two pocket squares and some yarn.

“Sexy police officer?” he suggested, with a too-wide grin. “You can break out the handcuffs again; I’ll even leave them on this time, if you like.”

Chloe sighed. She should have known better than to bring him to the Halloween store, but it was on the way. Trixie had given her that hopeful look before she’d gone off to school, and for once Chloe had caved and said she’d _try_ to pick up more decorations.

Dan didn’t get to be the fun parent _all_ the time.

“I’m not dressing up for Halloween, Lucifer.” Chloe tried to keep her tone even, knowing he wouldn’t let it go.

And he didn’t. Lucifer considered the outfit. “Maybe tonight instead?” he suggested. “Devil’s Night, you know: my night, so don’t I deserve a treat? Or a trick, if you’d rather,” he added, with a suggestive twitch of his eyebrows.

“They didn’t name tonight after you, specifically,” Chloe countered. Not even bothering to hide her eyeroll, she added as she headed back to the front of the store, “I’ll get you some candy at the checkout. Take it or leave it. But no sexy cop outfit.”

With an amiable shrug, Lucifer returned the outfit to the rack. “Of course they named it for me; who else? Though I suppose that, with you, _every_ outfit is a sexy cop outfit,” Lucifer replied, his voice full of absentminded charm rather than innuendo for once. Turning to the cashier and thus missing Chloe’s flustered look, he asked brightly, “And who is this little devil? I don’t really have horns, you know.”

Chloe gave Lucifer an exasperated look before smiling reassuringly to the mousy young woman behind the register; the devil-horn headband the teenager wore must have attracted Lucifer’s attention. “Don’t worry about him,” she said as she put the can of spray glitter and the other odds and ends she’d picked up for Trixie onto the counter. “He’s harmless.”

“I most certainly am not,” Lucifer huffed, easing a bag of gummy devil heads into Chloe’s pile before turning his charm back on the young woman, eyeing what Chloe hoped was her nametag. “Really, darling Emily, do _you_ think I’m harmless?”

“No,” Emily stammered, earning herself a bright smile from Lucifer before she turned back to Chloe. “Did he say that you’re a cop?”

Chloe nodded, easing back her inevitable coat to reveal the badge at her hip. “Homicide detective,” she confirmed. “Is everything okay?”

Emily started to scan Chloe’s purchases. “Well, nobody’s dead,” she replied, with a nervous smile. Still, it was obvious from her demeanor that something was wrong.

“What’s the matter?” Chloe asked, focus briefly distracted as Lucifer found the devil horn headbands and held one up to his head for her approval. The sight of Lucifer with horns caught her attention with a jolt, and she closed her eyes against the memory of a certain dream, inhaling sharply. Turning back to Emily, she firmly ignored Lucifer’s sudden look of interest.

Emily hesitated for a moment, then admitted, “Somebody’s been trashing my family’s yard for the past couple of nights. It’s been worse every night, and last night they egged my car and set off a bunch of fireworks. It really scared my little sister, and I’m kind of worried about tonight.”

“Have you tried talking to the police?” Chloe queried as Lucifer rejoined her and put the headband on the pile of purchases.

Emily shook her head. “They called my cell phone the first night and said not to call the cops.” She finished scanning the purchases as she added, “But technically I’m not _calling_ you…”

“Oh, a loophole,” Lucifer approved, taking out his money clip to pay for the purchases. “I like the way you think.” As Chloe protested the payment, Lucifer added, “No worries, Detective. You can do something else for my treat. I have a list.”

“That’s not what I -” Chloe sighed. “You know what? Never mind.” He had money to spare, and sometimes it just wasn’t worth the argument. She turned back to Emily, asking, “Do you have any idea who’s doing it?”

Emily shook her head. “It might be these guys from school. They said they didn’t do it, but maybe they were lying. I don’t know. I didn’t recognize the voice when they called, and the number was unavailable.”

Chloe nodded, with a thoughtful frown. She reached for a pen, recoiling a little when she realized that it was shaped like a bloody finger.

“Here.” Emily offered a regular ballpoint.

“Thanks,” Chloe replied, taking the pen and jotting down a number. “This is the number for a friend of mine, Jim Spencer. He deals with vandalism every day, and he’s the -”

But Emily was already shaking her head. “I can’t _call_ ,” she protested. “He said they’d know!”

Chloe bit back on a sigh. “Okay, what about your parents? Can they call?”

“No.” Emily’s face closed down in a way that Chloe recognized, as she had felt the expression often enough on her own face when she was young; she wondered which one of Emily’s parents was, like her own mother, more child than parent. After a moment, the young woman continued, her words clipped, “My mother isn’t around, and my dad… he can’t handle it.”

Chloe felt her heart clench in sympathy. At least she’d had her father, when her mother had been at her most difficult.

“Why can’t _we_ help her, Detective?” Lucifer asked brightly. “I mean, she’s a fan,” he added, with a gesture toward the young woman’s headband.

Chloe pulled Lucifer a few feet away, unfortunately putting them right near the sexy cop outfit. “Look, this really isn’t my area,” she began.

“We don’t have an active case right now,” Lucifer wheedled. “And your offspring is at Daniel’s tonight, yes? We could keep an eye on the place, scare off the vandals if they show up.”

Emily coughed lightly, drawing their attention. “Look, it’s okay,” she said earnestly to Chloe. “I don’t want to cause problems for you and your husband.”

Lucifer beamed and stepped closer to Chloe, clearly preparing to slide an arm around her in a show of marital bliss. “We’ll work it out; we always do.”

“We’re not married,” Chloe said promptly, her words overlapping Lucifer’s. “He’s my partner.”

Emily glanced at Lucifer, then back to Chloe, nodding all the while. “Yeah,” she agreed. “I know you don’t have to be married for…” Her gaze slid to the sexy cop outfit before she concluded, her voice dropping to a whisper, “Handcuffs.”

“Definitely not,” Lucifer agreed brightly. “See, Detective? Even the little devil thinks we should try again with the handcuffs.”

Chloe shot an exasperated look at Lucifer before asking Emily, “When have they been showing up?”

“I don’t know about the first night,” Emily replied. “It was just toilet paper on the trees, and I slept through it. But the other two nights, it was around midnight.”

The discussion continued, and by the end of it Chloe had somehow agreed to a stakeout in Emily’s neighborhood. The fact that Emily’s little sister was just a year older than Trixie had made it difficult to say no; while Chloe was a little reluctant, Emily’s obvious gratitude made it worthwhile.

“Wonderful,” Lucifer enthused as they stepped out of the Halloween store. “I’ll bring the snacks.”

* * *

 “Is it a date?” Trixie asked after dinner.

Maze, studiously ignoring the dishes in favor of flipping through a knife catalog that put the Victoria’s Secret catalog to shame, looked over with interest.

“No, it’s not a date,” Chloe replied, wiggling her fingers at Trixie’s abdomen in mock-threat. “It’s work, kind of.”

Trixie grinned and twitched away from her mother’s tickling fingers, then suggested, tucking Miss Alien next to her backpack, “Maybe you should wear a costume.” Catching her mother’s puzzled look, she added, “It’s _so_ close to Halloween.”

“Lucifer does like costumes,” Maze murmured archly as she passed behind Chloe.

“Come on, Maze,” Chloe protested, with a gesture to her daughter.

Maze shrugged. “What? Trixie likes costumes, too. Just in a different way. Nothing wrong with liking costumes.”

“Yeah, Mommy,” Trixie agreed. “Costumes are cool.”

Maze mimicked Chloe’s gesture to Trixie. “Costumes,” she repeated, straight-faced but with mischief in her eyes, “are cool.”

“Well, I’m not wearing a costume tonight,” Chloe replied firmly. “Monkey, Daddy’s going to be here soon. Are you ready?”

Trixie nodded, though she persisted, “Will you wear a costume tomorrow, when you and me and Maze go trick-or-treating?”

Chloe considered her daughter’s hopeful expression. “Okay, baby. I can do that.”

“Good,” Trixie said. “Maze can help you find one, if you want. Last year, she had the _best_ costume. You’re going to wear it again this year, right, Maze?”

Maze, with a pleased nod for Trixie, agreed too-brightly, “Sure. And I’d be glad to help, Decker.”

“That’s okay,” Chloe said quickly, imagining herself clad in black leather. “I’m good.”

With a shrug, Maze replied, “Just make sure it isn’t boring. Boring doesn’t get candy.”

“Everybody gets candy,” Chloe said evenly.

Trixie grinned. “But a cool costume gets _more_ candy.”

“I’ll think of something,” Chloe said, her firm tone ending the conversation, though she didn’t miss the conspiratorial look that her daughter and her roommate exchanged.

* * *

 Chloe sat in her car outside Lux, watching the line of people waiting to enter. Some of them were in costume, perhaps in anticipation of midnight, and she smiled, thinking Trixie extolling the virtues of costumes.

Eventually, Lucifer emerged from the back entrance and made his way to the car.

“Hey,” she greeted him as he eased into the car, tucking his bag of snacks on the center console. Glancing back at the line, she added, with a gesture toward her car, “Is this really what you want to be doing tonight?”

Lucifer looked over, puzzled. “What, trying to be rid of me already?”

Chloe smiled. “No, if course not. It’s just that you have all these people here at Lux.”

Lucifer pondered her words with a shrug that somehow still looked elegant. “Everyone at Lux wants something from me: favors, a selfie, sex. Sometimes it gets a bit old. Not the sex, of course,” he hastened to add.

“I want something from you, too,” Chloe replied, though she shook her head as his attention sharpened, his lips curving. “Not _that_. I want… what we have. Had.” She frowned. “Have? I don’t know. Things have been weird. And now you’d rather spend the evening sitting in a car with me than at Lux? I don’t get it.”

“Why is that so hard to believe?” Lucifer queried, with a small, curious smile. Of course, being Lucifer, he had to add, “Not that I’d mind doing other things besides sitting, but our priority tonight is the little devil, yes?”

“Yes,” Chloe agreed firmly. She changed lanes, focusing on driving for a little while, then added, “I’ve been thinking about these jerks who have been trashing Emily’s yard.”

“It would have to be more than one, given the damage she described,” Lucifer agreed. “Miscreants in dire need of some punishment.”

“Okay, but remember: we’re going to bring them in,” Chloe cautioned. “No vigilante justice, even though we’re not doing this officially.”

Lucifer sighed, an easy, drawn-out sound. “Always by the book,” he mused. “Maybe we should look into getting you some new reading material.” His sly, sidelong look suggested what sort he’d prefer she try.

“Yeah, no,” Chloe replied, amused.

“Well, we may have a long night ahead of us,” Lucifer countered. “I mean, I don’t have anything with me, but I could tell stories.”

Chloe was sure he could. Pulling into a shadowy parking spot near Emily’s house and turning off the car, she said as she settled in, “That could lead to trouble. Besides, we’re supposed to be keeping an eye out.”

Lucifer protested, “I can tell stories and watch for bad guys at the same time. I’m excellent at multi-tasking,” he added, his voice dropping to a low rumble that got Chloe’s thoughts going in entirely the wrong direction.

“Why don’t we focus on what we’re doing here?” Chloe replied, pulling her mind away from _multi-tasking_.

Lucifer pulled out the devil-head gummis and opened them, offering them to Chloe. “What,” he said when she demurred, “Don’t want to eat me?”

“Gross,” Chloe protested with a laugh, though she queried, “What flavor?”

“Cinnamon,” Lucifer replied, somehow managing to make it sound suggestive. “Spicy. And you did consider the story,” he added, his voice rich with exultation. “I saw you think about it. You want to hear my stories; I know you do.”

Chloe studied him: eyes bright with anticipation, one hand holding another gummy just before his lips, and somehow she wanted to say yes, to see those lips curve into a smile. “Okay,” she said finally. “But no sex in your story, and keep watching the yard.”

“Really, Detective, that’s quite limiting,” Lucifer protested, though he did smile, victorious, and Chloe couldn’t help but smile in return. “Though I suppose I can understand why. After all, if I told you a really good one, you wouldn’t be able to help yourself.” He ignored Chloe’s derisive snort, adding, “What sort of story would you like?”

That gave Chloe a moment’s pause. What could she ask that he would actually tell? “What about Halloween, when you were a kid? What did you do?”

“There was no Halloween when I was young,” Lucifer replied, too-patiently. “Devil, remember? But you could tell me about when you were young. Did you dress as a cop every year?”

Chloe sighed, a little frustrated with Lucifer’s insistence on the whole devil thing, though she said only, “Of course not, Lucifer. My mom never would have gone for that.”

“Oh, so it was cheeseball sci-fi heroines?” Lucifer offered, amused.

Making a face, Chloe replied, “Usually it was whatever ridiculous, overdone outfit she could wrangle me into. The dress I wore when I was five was so huge that I could barely get through the door. I think she borrowed it from some costumer friend; that’s where she usually got them. And before you ask, _no_ , there aren’t any pictures.”

“I’ll bet your mum would say differently,” Lucifer teased. “She doesn’t seem the sort to forget photos.” He grinned unrepentantly at Chloe’s frown, adding, “But you just… wore these awful outfits?”

“I was a kid,” Chloe replied with a shrug, before admitting, “And I always got a ton of candy. But the year I was Trixie’s age, she brought out this angel outfit. White robes, halo, huge wings. It was pretty and, okay, I liked the wings. But I wasn’t feeling it.”

Lucifer, his expression thoughtful, replied, “Actually, that one seems like it would suit you, at least the way humans see angels. Your mum didn’t know she was dressing you as an arrogant wanker. Well, most of them are, at least. Did you tell her you wouldn’t wear it?”

Chloe paused a moment at Lucifer’s description of angels, then shook her head, with a humorless chuckle. “Oh, no. There was no changing my mother’s mind about stuff like that, and she loved any excuse to doll me up. But I got some teeny, tiny devil horns, I think from a friend at school, and I wore them all night. I was the only one who knew they were there, and that made it better. More fun.”

“Rebelling against your mother at such a young age,” Lucifer approved.

“Yes,” Chloe agreed, though she smiled as her thoughts drifted to Lucifer in that headband.

Lucifer twisted around to sit sideways in his seat. “Now what intriguing little thought just crossed your mind, to make you smile like that?”

“Why did you buy that headband, back at the Halloween store?” Chloe queried. “I mean, you’re never going to wear it. You wouldn’t want to mess up your hair,” she added, teasing.

“Oh, I might,” Lucifer countered, his pointed look suggesting that he had taken note of Chloe’s avoidance of the question. “Maybe tomorrow, for fun. Maybe some other time.”

Chloe asked, amused, “You’re dressing up for Halloween?” When Lucifer gave a noncommittal shrug, she pressed, “As what? Trixie wants me to dress up for trick-or-treating, and I need to find something before Maze does.”

Lucifer smiled wickedly, perhaps at the thought of Chloe in a Maze-designed costume. “Why, a handsome devil, of course. What else?”

“So every day is Halloween?” Chloe asked, her tone a little flippant.

Lucifer seemed to take her seriously, pausing before he answered. “In a manner of speaking,” he agreed finally. “After all, we all have our masks. Some are just more obvious than others. Or so Doctor Linda says.”

“Well, she’s not wrong,” Chloe agreed softly, looking up at him with a smile.

Lucifer shifted closer as he met her gaze, his dark eyes serious for once, and she had a feeling that he finally going to tell her why things had been so weird between them. “Detective,” he began.

Chloe heard a familiar rattling sound, and it took a moment for recognition to click: it was the sound that she’d made shaking Trixie’s glitter spray back at the Halloween store. Three people walked past the car, their ages and genders obscured by their clothing; the leader, shaking a can of spray paint, moved purposefully toward Emily’s house.

Lucifer looked over at the sound and the moment, for it was definitely a moment, vanished.

“There they are, Detective,” Lucifer said, uncoiling from his lanky sprawl in a way that reminded Chloe of the show about king cobras that she and Trixie had watched the previous week.

“Give them a minute,” Chloe urged, even as she sent Emily a quick text: _Someone’s here. Stay inside._ “We want to get them on more than just intent.”

Lucifer subsided, though he still watched the trio, his gaze focused and alert. And when they started the line of paint on Emily’s garage door, it was Lucifer who was first out of the car, making it to the vandals’ side before Chloe had managed to cross the street.

“What do you mean by harassing poor Emily?” Lucifer demanded.

The young man with the spray paint scoffed at Lucifer, sneering, “She’s getting what’s coming to her.”

“Yeah,” the lone woman agreed as Chloe approached, one hand on her sidearm. “She stole Jake’s boyfriend.” The third in the trio, Chloe noted, looked ready to run, and she circled around to cut him off.

“Bitch,” the first speaker agreed.

That was apparently too much for Lucifer; he reached out, lightning-quick, and grabbed the other man by his collar, hoisting him easily into the air and shoving him against the house. “Now you owe her an apology for two things.”

Though the man looked a little startled by his sudden increase in altitude, he shook his head. “No way, man.”

“Put him down!” That from the flight-prone young man who, Chloe was startled to see, now aimed a gun at Lucifer. His hands, like his voice, shook in a way that worried Chloe. She never did like the jumpy ones.

“Jake, where’d you get a gun?” the young woman demanded.

“Hey, Jake,” Chloe called, pulling out her own pistol and training it on the jittery young man. “Take it easy. Lucifer, put the guy down.”

The young woman, seeing Chloe’s weapon, let loose with a rather impressive string of profanity and bolted. Chloe didn’t exactly mind, though; the fewer people there, the better.

The young man Lucifer was still holding joked, in the slightly hysterical tone of one who has realized that his situation has gone completely off the rails, “Does everybody here have a gun but me?”

“I don’t,” Lucifer replied, lowering the young man with a thump but keeping a grip on his collar.

“Dude, you don’t need a gun,” the young man replied, joking tone turned to awe.

Despite the situation, Lucifer smiled, though his expression sobered as he turned back to Jake.

“See, Jake,” Chloe urged, her own gun unwavering. “He put down your friend. Nobody needs to get hurt today.”

Jake snapped his aim to Chloe. She saw Lucifer stiffen and urged, “Don’t move, Lucifer.”

“Jake, what are you doing?” Emily demanded, opening the front door with a bang, which drew Jake’s gaze and even distracted Chloe for a split second.

Later, Chloe couldn’t tell for sure if it was intentional on Jake’s part, or just a twitch of his finger. Before she even heard the gunshot, she was pulled out of its path, the nearness of the bullet twisting her guts with fear and remembered pain. _Not again, please._

Lucifer released her, for he had somehow crossed the yard and pulled her out of harm’s way. And then she saw them.

Wings. Lucifer had wings: magnificent white wings that, encompassed all of Chloe’s field of vision. They were only there for a moment before, with an irritated look, Lucifer did an odd little shoulder-hitch and they disappeared. Then he froze, as if realizing his situation, and turned back to Chloe with wide eyes. “Detective,” he breathed.

Chloe fought back the shock that threatened to overwhelm her, because there was still Jake, and Emily on her doorstep, and the gun, and the other guy who was, somehow, still there. Miraculously, none of them seemed to have noticed the wings, Jake too shocked by the gravity of his situation, Emily and the young man with the spraypaint too busy arguing.

Chloe took a moment to think, _Thank God,_ and then, _Shit. God._

 _No_ , she redirected herself firmly. _Not now._ So she shoved away her incipient panic that, _shit_ , Lucifer had been telling her the truth all this time, because she had a job to do. Time enough to freak out later.

Lucifer, his face grim, turned to advance upon Jake, who, shaking, dropped the gun.

“Hey, no,” Chloe protested, rushing over as Lucifer grabbed Jake.

“He _shot at you_ ,” Lucifer replied, incensed.

“And he missed,” Chloe said, easing herself between Lucifer and the panicked young man. “Thanks to you.”

“I didn’t mean to shoot at her,” Jake whined. “It just happened.”

Chloe rested a hand on Lucifer’s chest, and he stepped back, releasing the young man before straightening his cuffs in a short, sharp gesture. “We’re going to call it in,” Chloe said firmly. “And once this is taken care of, we’re going to talk, yeah?” He didn’t reply, and she urged, “ _Lucifer_.”

“Yes,” he said distantly, moving to apprehend the young man with the spray cans.

After the calls and the unis, and the “just happened to be here” that she could tell nobody believed but didn’t question, the thanks from Emily and her wide-eyed little sister, Chloe finally found a minute to sit down on Emily’s front step. It was only then, with the danger over and the work done, that her hands started to shake and her breath came too quickly.

She’d almost gotten shot again. Some stupid kid with a gun, and it could have been over just like that. And she was okay thanks to Lucifer. And his wings.

Thanks to _the Devil_ , and wasn’t that just surreal? The literal Devil had saved her life _again_ on the night before Halloween. Or… no. She glanced at her watch, and midnight had come and gone some time ago.

Well. Happy freaking Halloween.

But all his words about punishment, all the strange things that she’d seen him do, suddenly it all made an odd sort of sense.

Lucifer her partner.

Lucifer, the Devil.

The cognitive dissonance of those two thoughts threatened to overwhelm her, so Chloe shoved aside both of those thoughts. After all these years, Chloe was excellent at compartmentalization.

How had she not put it together before? “Some detective I am,” Chloe muttered, though, really, how could anybody have drawn what was, apparently, the correct conclusion. “He’s the Devil.”

Realizing that she’d lost track of Lucifer some time ago, Chloe surged to her feet, nearly overbalancing herself in the process. A hand slid under her elbow to catch her, remained there until she was stable, and then released her.

Lucifer. Of course.

“Yes,” he agreed, taking a careful step back, giving her room. “I am the Devil. As I’ve been telling you.”

“So,” Chloe said lightly, after inhaling a deep breath. "That’s twice you saved me tonight.

Lucifer didn’t smile, didn’t meet her gaze. “If you want me to go,” he said woodenly, “I can make my own way home.”

“Apparently,” Chloe replied, trying for a joke despite the surge of disbelief that threatened to overwhelm her. As Lucifer turned away, she hurried after him. “No, I didn’t mean for you to leave,” she protested. Lowering her voice, she added, “I just… why would you ever ride in a car when you’ve got wings?”

Lucifer’s face twisted, and she was suddenly, poignantly reminded of his comment about masks.

“Hey, you don’t need to tell me,” Chloe reassured, as he looked unlikely to speak. “But we do need to talk about this. Why don’t we go back to my place? Maze -” The _demon_ , her bounty hunter roommate was an actual demon. Her voice caught on the word and he _saw_ ; of course he saw. “Maze said she’d be out,” she concluded, trying to speak normally.

His expression gone lost in a way that tugged at Chloe’s heart, Lucifer asked, “You don’t mind being in the car with me? You’re not afraid?”

Chloe shrugged. She was still reeling, but could tell that she needed to play it cool, keep it light. With all the rejection he must have suffered, he didn’t need more from her. “I was in the car with you all evening.”

“Yes, but -” Lucifer looked at her, really looked at her, one hand reaching toward her as if of its own volition. “Detective, are you all right?”

Chloe glanced at his hand and then took it in her own, giving it a little squeeze. “Yeah,” she replied. “Or I will be, once I get used to this. But this is going to take the prize for weirdest Halloween ever, and that includes the party at Dan’s parents’ house the year we got engaged.” She turned toward the car, still holding Lucifer’s hand; after a moment, he fell into step with her.

“You’re taking this remarkably well,” Lucifer observed, sounding a little puzzled.

Chloe laughed, shaking her head. Not entirely in jest, she said “If it makes you feel any better, I’m guessing that the nervous breakdown will hit in a few hours, when all this starts to sink in.”

“Give Doctor Linda a call,” Lucifer suggested.

Chloe peered up at him, frowning a little. “Linda knows?” When he nodded, she muttered, “Therapist to the Devil. And she can’t even put it on her business cards.” She offered Lucifer the car keys, ignoring his startled look; she didn’t feel particularly up to driving, not after the evening she’d had. She knew that, now that the immediate pressure of the job had eased, it was all going to hit, and hard.

“I do have a question,” Chloe added, when they reached the car.

His voice heavy with irony, Lucifer replied, “Just the one?”

Chloe laughed as they got into the car. Light. She had to keep it light, for both of them. “Well, no, I have way more than that. Just one for now, though: no horns? Really?”

Lucifer regarded her for a moment in shocked silence and then he laughed, the warm, rich sound easing the subtle tension that had sprung up between them. “No horns,” he agreed.

Things were still weird, Chloe decided; they had, in fact, gotten substantially weirder. It was like a fever breaking. And now, with the truth coming to light, maybe things could get better. She settled back against her seat as Lucifer started the car, watching him as she turned the revelation over in her head.

Lucifer looked over, seeing her watching him. “Is this when the nervous breakdown begins?” he queried, his attempt at humor falling a little flat.

“No,” Chloe reassured him, thinking, _The Devil is nervous, and I’m finding it kind of endearing._ She took a deep breath, then said, “Look, I… we…” She exhaled a short, exasperated sound, frustrated with her inability to speak a coherent sentence. Alcohol, she decided. The situation definitely called for alcohol. “You’re still you, right?”

Though he looked troubled, Lucifer nodded.

“Then we’re going to be okay,” Chloe decided. She smiled, then, a little amused by how surreal it was that she was reassuring the Devil.

Still, Lucifer saw her smile and relaxed, his own smile warming his face. “Good,” he whispered.

And it was.


End file.
